If this is Monday we must be in Bali

Hello, all you in blogland. I’m happy to report that our 31 or so hours of flight plus layover time went off without a hitch. We slept well on the long leg from San Francisco to Taipei, and we really don’t feel any jet lag. Our friend, Bern, met us at the airport and here we are at the Three Brothers Bungalows.

We are very aware that we’re not in Seattle anymore. It’s hot and very humid. In a fit of pseudo-impecunious insanity we got a room without air conditioning. “We’ll go for the whole ex-pat in the tropics thing” I thought. This is an idea I’m actively reconsidering. There’s no glass in the windows, so this room, at least, couldn’t have air conditioning.

The bathroom, interestingly, is outside. The photo is a view from the john.

That red tile around the sink, toilet, and tub is very slick when feet are wet, and the path from our room to there tends to be always wet. If you get no more posts to this blog you’ll know I died slipping on the tile while going to the bathroom.

There are idols everywhere, and every morning fresh offerings of food are put out for them. Many of the idols are wearing sarongs. I presume these are the guy idols, but could be wrong.

It’s all pretty much as you might expect. Someone, every five feet or so, insistently trying to sell you something. Lot’s of cars and motorbikes with only a fuzzy sense of lanes and such. This, combined with the fact that drivers keep to the left, a la England, makes crossing the street an adventure.

We’re close to the (Indian) Ocean. We walked there today.

We went up the beach and then back via the streets.

It rained while we were walking back — as hard a rain as I have ever seen. It drove home the fact that we’re truly in the tropics.

Tonight we had dinner at a restaurant on the beach. The food wasn’t actually all that great, and the music was distressingly loud for these aging ears. But walking there and back it didn’t rain, and that was a very good thing.